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Dust Storms in Space?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Robert G. Roosen ,
Otto E. Berg  and
Neil H. Farlow
Robert G. Roosen
Affiliation:
Goddard Space Flight Center, NASAGreenbelt, Maryland
Otto E. Berg
Affiliation:
Goddard Space Flight Center, NASAGreenbelt, Maryland
Neil H. Farlow
Affiliation:
Ames Research Center, NASAMoffett Field, California

Abstract

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Silverberg (1970) has explained the “dust storms” observed by the early satellite-borne microphone detectors by postulating that the orbital planes of short-period, low-inclination comets are filled with micrometeoroids. We report here on three separate approaches to test the validity of this hypothesis.

  1. (1) Optical scans of the Gegenschein brightness can yield no useful information on the nearly isotropic sheets of dust predicted by Silverberg.

  2. (2) An attempt to directly collect dust particles during a predicted high flux period by means of a sounding rocket yielded negative results.

  3. (3) Over three years of particle impact data from extremely sensitive detectors flown aboard Pioneers 8 and 9 show no observable dust storms.

Hence Silverberg’s hypothesis appears untenable.

However, we should not rule out the possibility that observable showers of very small particles can be blown directly off the nuclei of some comets passing between the Earth and the Sun.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 13: Evolutionary and Physical Properties of Meteoroids , June 1971 , pp. 223 - 226
Copyright
Copyright © NASA 1971

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